February, 2009

President’s Corner – Steve Leblanc

Gallery eventThe AAW is encouraging local chapters to host a gallery event. I received a letter from Frank Amigo of the AAW board, and I want to present this suggestion to the general membership and see if there is any interest in doing this. I have been personally involved in two gallery shows and am preparing for another in May, so I have some experience in this; I can tell you it is a rewarding experience. It also takes some work. Depending on the venue we choose, our selected works from the membership may or may not need to be for sale. It would give us great exposure in the community and would help in increasing the skill level of the club as a whole. If we go forward with this, it would be later in the year. One possible venue, as suggested by Chrystal Craver, would be the Ventura Art Walk in the fall. I will provide more details in forthcoming newsletters.

Presidents ChallengeAt our January meeting, I issued a challenge to club members to turn something “whimsical”.
You have two months to create a project that could be playful, fun, silly; and/or abstract. Take a chance, and let the child in you come out. Bring your project to the club meeting at the 28 March Swap Meet for Show-n-Tell. I’m excited to see what you can create!

SkillsIf you had to pick just one thing (project, technique, skill) you wanted to learn this year, what would it be? Think about that and e-mail me (sml.woodturner@att.net) or Bob Fahrnbruch (rslf2@verizon.net) your answer. Or bring it to the February meeting where I will take your suggestions. This will aid us in preparing content for the half-day demos.

Steve

New and continuing members should pay their 2009 club dues of $25 to treasurer Ron Lindsay. Please mail them to him or bring to the meeting. The membership forms in Word and Acrobat formats can be accessed from the top of the Bylaws page.

New Members:

Kathiee Huelskamp, Richard Ingram,

Dana and son Johnathan Christensen,

Kathy and Gayron Downs,

Larry Harms and son, and

Ralph Rossbach (see Club Roster for addresses, phone numbers, etc.)

Raffle winners Stan Wolpert and Murray Kay

Introduction of visitors

Program chair Joe Levy with update

Librarian Judy Grange

Al Geller with sanding disks to raffle off

Seth Macarthur with winged bowl

Michael Ingham is doing hollowing ala Ellsworth

Bob Fahrnbruch is making pens with rifle shell brass

Jim Rinde with deeply wire-brushed Redwood vessel

Show and Tell Table

Jim made deep hollowing tools

Tim Albers brought another cash donation and another load of Avocado – also live oak – shows sample project

Dave Staeheli with turned scoops & eccentric turnings with magnets

Al Geller starts demo showing favorite work lamp

Use plastic coffee cans to hold soapy water to de-gunk tools

Star wheel and diamond dressing tools for truing grinding wheels

Al recommends beginners first master the open shapes

Try out diffent designs to fit the available blank

Collet chuck and tenon of piece to be held

Al’s rules for scroll chuck

Al’s advice on glue chucks

Showing centering wire through center of glue block chuck

Dave showed how to use Cole jaws instead of Jam chuck for making scoops